Application gaps in Psychology

Representative open questions

Showing 28 of 35 — one per source paper, highest-quality first.

• Relational energy and coping flexibility among Chinese university students: the mediating role of optimism and the moderating influence of cognitive reappraisal (2026) · doi

  The conditional indirect effect of the moderated mediation model (relational energy × cognitive reappraisal → optimism → coping flexibility) is reported as comparatively small in magnitude. Future research using longitudinal or experience-sampling designs should investigate whether this subtle effect accumulates to produce meaningful psychological benefits when experienced repeatedly across daily academic interactions.

• Psychiatric conditions in palliative medicine (2020) · doi

  Almost 50% of palliative patients cared for at home experience moderate to severe symptoms of anxiety and/or depression in the last week of life, yet specific psychological interventions tailored to end-of-life anxiety and depression management have not been systematically evaluated. Research is needed to develop and validate evidence-based psychological symptom management protocols for the final week of life in palliative care.

• A Machine Learning-Based Sentiment Analysis Framework for Twitter Tweets Using Natural Language Processing (2026) · doi

  The proposed system uses binary classification (concern detected vs. no concern) for mental health issues on Twitter; the paper specifies the need to adapt the approach toward multi-class classification to detect and differentiate between other specific mental health problems (depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, etc.) rather than generic concern detection.

• MOTIVATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS IN LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: FROM THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS TO PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICE (2026) · doi

  The paper identifies the paradox of choice as reducing motivation when LMS courses offer excessive task and resource variation, but provides no empirical threshold or design guideline specifying the optimal number of personalization options before cognitive overload occurs for higher education students at different achievement levels.

• Depression and Anxiety as Aspects of Mental Health in Celiac Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analytical Synthesis (2026) · doi

  Interventional studies directly comparing combined dietary and psychological interventions versus diet-alone approaches are needed to evaluate whether adjunctive psychological support (psychoeducation, coping strategies, resilience training) can reduce persistent depression and anxiety symptoms in patients with long-term dietary adherence.

• Digital displacement (2026) · doi

  The paper emphasizes that institutional design for connection is essential yet lacks empirical evaluation of specific online environment design features (interactivity structures, cultural inclusivity mechanisms, asynchronous communication affordances) on reducing digital displacement; future research should employ quasi-experimental or design intervention studies comparing online program architectures to identify which modality-specific features most effectively reduce social isolation and cultural disconnection in international student cohorts.

• Living with loss: environmental grief, solastalgia, and young adults’ experiences after wildfires (2026) · doi

  The study indicates that psychological indicators of trust and grief should be integrated into disaster management protocols as early warning signals of social vulnerability, but no operational framework exists for translating environmental grief assessment into actionable institutional accountability mechanisms within regional planning processes for Mediterranean basin fire risk.

• Living Well with Lifestyle Medicine: A group consultation approach to delivering Lifestyle Medicine Intervention in Primary Care (2021) · doi

  The programme was specifically designed to be led by a physician with expertise in lifestyle medicine, and the paper notes that specialist clinical leadership provides support to allied health professionals. However, there is no empirical comparison of outcomes between physician-led group consultations versus allied health professional-led sessions, or investigation of the minimum required level of physician involvement to achieve comparable cost-effectiveness and clinical benefits.

• Lived experiences of humour as a coping strategy in higher education (2026) · doi

  The paper proposes implementing humour-based therapies and humor-infused peer support programs in universities but lacks specification of intervention protocols, outcome measurement tools, or empirical validation of how humour-based journaling and student-led meme sharing groups actually affect student mental health outcomes.

• The silent accumulation: AI as mental contaminant (2026) · doi

  Governance innovations including effect boundary specification, adaptation monitoring, and circuit-breaker mechanisms for continuously evolving AI systems require pilot testing and policy experiments to assess their effectiveness and democratic legitimacy before broader implementation across technology platforms.

• Bots with Bias: Gender-Indexed Politeness in AI Chatbot Outputs (2026) · doi

  The study identified that chatbot responses reinforce conventional gender norms (women as emotional/cooperative, men as direct/rational) but did not quantify the downstream impacts of these biased responses on user behavior, trust calibration, or reinforcement of gender stereotypes over repeated interactions. Longitudinal user studies measuring cognitive effects and stereotype internalization from exposure to gender-indexed chatbot politeness would establish the real-world harms of this bias.

• Teachers’ Flexibility and Coping Mechanisms among Teachers Impacted by School Closures (2026) · doi

  Collegial positivity is presented as a collective resilience factor, but the paper does not investigate the mechanisms by which positive workplace emotional climate either develops or deteriorates following school closure, nor does it examine whether collegial positivity can compensate for loss of relational support from family or students.

• The quality of the physical environment of Early Childhood Care and Education Centers in the Northeast region of Portugal: a comparison between researchers’ and educators’ assessments (2026) · doi

  No empirical relationship exists between ECEC physical environment quality scores and measurable child outcomes; future studies must correlate environment quality ratings with children's play, cognitive development, motor skills, social-emotional competence, well-being, and engagement using standardized observational and developmental assessment scales.

• Mindcare AI: Transforming Mental Health Support with AI (2026) · doi

  Some users tended to follow the AI's suggestions without critical assessment, underscoring the need for balanced information and the preservation of individualised care.

• Cannabis use frequency may differentially impact cognitive performance in young adults with and without HIV (2026) · doi

  Intervention studies are needed to test whether altering immune and inflammatory processes through cannabis or other therapeutic mechanisms could address ongoing effects of HIV on CNS functioning.

• Impact of subanesthetic ketamine delivered via AmyloLipid nanovesicle (ALN)-based intranasal system on biobehavioral responses in an animal model of PTSD (2026) · doi

  Translational gap between animal models of PTSD and clinical efficacy in human populations requires additional comparative studies across different trauma exposure paradigms.

• Using artificial intelligence technology in virtual court procedures (2026) · doi

  Difficulty in handling cases requiring human qualities such as emotional understanding, intuitive judgment, and contextual reasoning that exceed AI's current cognitive capabilities.

• Examination Stress and OSCE Performance in Basic Clinical Skills: A Study Among Medical Students (2026) · doi

  Limited opportunities for simulation-based training were reported as a reason students felt unprepared for the OSCE.

• Physical Activity in the Prevention and Treatment of Depression and Anxiety Disorders: A Narrative Literature Review (2026) · doi

  Developing personalized protocols to effectively overcome motivational barriers in clinical populations represents a key area for future investigation.

• Social Media and Youth Mental Health: An Analytical Perspective (2026) · doi

  Digital well-being requires collaboration among educators, parents, and policymakers, but specific evidence-based intervention strategies and their effectiveness need to be developed and evaluated.

• Effects of natural disasters on the cognitive state of older adults with dementia: a scoping review (2026) · doi

  Evidence-based disaster response strategies to protect vulnerable populations such as older adults with dementia during times of disasters need to be established by leading authorities.

• MULTISENSORY FEEDBACK-INTEGRATED EMOTIONAL INTERACTION SYSTEM FOR EMOTIONAL INTERVENTION: INNOVATION, ADVANCEMENT, AND SOCIETAL VALUE (2026) · doi

  Expand the scene library dimension and add tactile feedback (such as vibration feedback of interactive devices) to realize multi-sensory synergy of vision, hearing, and touch.

• Clozapine: revised haematological monitoring recommendations (2026) · doi

  Need for increased mental health care addressing suboptimal clozapine response, monitoring and management of comorbid mental disorders including depression, and increased focus on managing negative and cognitive symptoms.

• Emotional intelligence and intercultural growth: Examining affective dimensions in the EFL public speaking classroom (2026) · doi

  Studies on EI and interculturality should continue to explore how affect shapes relationships across diverse learning contexts.

• Inteligencia emocional sobre los celos y la dependencia emocional en parejas de la selva peruana (2026) · doi

  Psychosocial intervention programs need to be designed and implemented with couples, oriented toward emotional management, promotion of healthy relationships and prevention of jealousy or dependent dynamics as strategies to reduce intimate partner violence.

• Beyond cognition: the four-seasons framework for integrating affect into mathematics teaching (2026) · doi

  The framework requires implementation and validation with teachers in different educational systems and at different grade levels beyond primary and junior high school.

• Mathematics Anxiety and its Impact on Academic Achievement (2026) · doi

  The paper acknowledges the need for effective intervention strategies to address mathematics anxiety but does not comprehensively evaluate or compare the efficacy of different intervention approaches.

• Eye movements reflect memory-related theta activity in the human brain (2026) · doi

  The study was limited to memory-cued and visually-cued navigation conditions; the relationship between theta dynamics and eye movements in other cognitive tasks or environmental contexts remains unexplored.